Sometimes, students get the task to memorize an essay. Of course, modern students are interested in ways to do that quickly and effectively. Nobody wants to spend days on memorizing an essay. Professional essay writers know how to complete academic tasks well, so memorizing an essay is not a problem for them. See their tips in the text below.
The problem of memorizing an essay becomes especially complicated when the text is long, and the student doesn’t have in-depth knowledge on the topic at a time. There are almost no people able to learn written things by heart after they read them for the first time. So, here are special tricks and hints to do that.
These tips will be useful for all students who want to learn how to memorize an essay or any other information from long texts and complicated learning materials. What is the main point is the skill of attentive reading and the ability to catch up with the main thought of an essay or other text.
Now, let’s see how to memorize an essay quickly and effectively.
Memorizing Essays: Memory Types
Mostly, people use one of the options available for them to remember the data. These options are connected with the sense organs of their body. Here is the classification of memory kinds in psychology:
- Visional Memory;
- Echoic Memory;
- Motor Memory.
To learn things quickly, some people obligatory need to check the material through. Others can do that by listening to the text. And some people feel it simple to write or print the material with their own hand. Kinesthetic memory allows memorizing the material quickly after a person gets some practical experience, which does not suit the task of essay learning though.
There is one more option. Students can try going in for associative learning. Just imagine what you need to learn while studying the material.
Use Notes to Memorize Essays
As we just mentioned, imagining some things or getting practical experience is not always helpful in case of essays. A complicated scientific text won’t remain in your memory word by word even if you read it multiple times.
Then, distinguish some fundamental points in a text to memorize it. The best choice is to write some short phrases – theses. Grounding points create a plan that serves as a crib. It squeezes the long article and gives you the memory guideline.
A good option is to create a plan composed of questions. Theses, which are quotes, also help.
What is the best way to complete the task if you can't copy quotes by hand? Processing the long text right on the original print is your solution. Try to mark essential points by numbers with a pencil, underline main thoughts, and make some notes there.
Vision Schemes to Memorize Essays
Mastering the text material becomes more effective if you set a drawn scheme, a picture or a bunch of pictograms according to what you need to memorize. Enlisting the data into a table is also a practical way.
Nowadays, mind mapping is a trendy instrument letting you structure even the most complicated masses of data. Using it to learn an essay by heart will simplify the process significantly.
Divide and Rule
Psychologists looking for practical answers for essay memorizing questions offer dividing texts into parts. Scientists concluded long ago that learning one extended writing is more complicated than remembering a few smaller ones. The best option is to divide materials into not more than seven pieces connected with one common idea.
By concentrating your attention on the middle part of the text, you can memorize an essay much better. As a rule, the beginning does not contain much information. And the conclusion is easy to learn with no effort due to its shortness.
Constant Reminding
In case you still have enough time until the deadline, here is a perfect tip for memorizing an essay. Print text parts on separate pages and then stick them everywhere inside your room, bathroom, balcony, kitchen, etc. You'll check the text in between routine tasks, even unconsciously, and your mind will keep it.
Here are some interesting exercises to improve your brain abilities and memory:
Think with Images
It can be difficult to understand new abstract definitions. But when you know how to transfer them into visual images, it is easier for your brain to keep the data. This way is especially effective when learning foreign language vocabularies, but can work for essays, too.
It is challenging to learn a dull text, so diversify the process. For instance, try "rewarding" yourself with reading a joke, having a short break, or eating a piece of cake every time after you complete reading and learning several text paragraphs. It works better than machine-learning the essay by heart for hours in a row.
Foreign Words
Memorizing a long text in a foreign language is usually more complicated than in your native one. Learning a part of a foreign text can be quicker with the help of an audio recorder.
When being busy with daily routine tasks or using public transport, try listening to the text you need to learn. Your brain is frequently bored in such moments, so it seems an interesting task for your memory.
The List of Short Memory Tips
- It's effortless to keep in mind things that you read right before going to bed. The effect is even more robust if you read them once more after you wake up.
- It is useful to know how to connect newly read things with those you know for long.
- Specialists highly recommend organizing a stimulus to learn things. Try promising yourself a reward. Making a public deal with your friends is the additional memory-boosting factor. You don't want to disappoint your close ones, do you?
- Retelling small text pieces aloud to an interested collocutor helps you memorize the text more effectively.
- It is difficult to memorize the complicated essay from the first try. Divide it into pieces and read them several times out loud.
- The more you train, the better the result is. Think of your brain as of a muscle. “Pumping” it regularly is the way to increase its abilities.